My summer of cooking though a farm subscription of seasonal produce...and trying to invent things that my kids will eat!

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Crock Pot Stew

Delicious, simple, cooked-ahead-of-time recipe number 2!

Crock Pot Stew

The awesome part of this recipe was that it took me about 10 minutes to prepare on Saturday night, and it was ready to eat on Monday night with the flip of a switch! Perfect for the working mom!

I began with frozen venison round steak. You could also use a beef roast or beef stew meat instead. However, I love venison in the crock pot because, rather than getting tough with overcooking as can happen with beef, venison just gets more tender and starts to fall apart. Venison can be a tasty, healthy, and very natural meat if it is butchered and cooked correctly. Anyhow....

I sprayed my crock pot with cooking spray and put the frozen meat at the bottom. I then washed and sliced about at dozen small potatoes (from the bucket), no peeling required! In addition I added (all from the bucket), sliced celery, onions, purple carrots, tomato chunks, and fresh sage. I sprinkled in some Penzey's dehydrated garlic, salt, and ground black pepper. I put the cover on, and put the crock pot into the fridge until Monday morning. On Monday morning at 7:00, right before leaving for work, I turned the crock pot on low.

I got home around 5:00 to a delicious smelling house and dinner, ready to go. I whipped up a jiffy mix of cornbread mini-muffins (which I topped with a dollop of real maple syrup before baking- yum!) and dinner was on the table before 6:00. Super simple, easy, and full of veggies!